Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 1 November 1937 — Page 9
Vagabond
From Indiana — Ernie Pyle
North Platte Businessmen Found Uninformed of Facts Concerning City's Relief Needs and Its Cost.
NORTH PLATTE, Neb., Nov. 1.—Just how great is the present need for continmihg relief? Is there any possibility of cutting down? Seeking an answer, I have gone around the City of North Platte, talking to people. And I came out of it convinced that it is unthinkable, at least right now. to do any drastic cutting. This long string of talks was an eye-opener, It revealed, for one thing, that the average North Platte businessnan's lack of information on the local relief situation is appalling. I didn’t talk with a single businessman who has any idea how many people are on relief here, knows what it is costing, who knows definitely anything about the availability of private jobs. I asked one well-to-do employer this hypothetical question: “i one-fourth of the heads of families were to be cut off relief. could this county absorb them in private jobs?” His answer was, “No. it could not. 1 asked another businessman the same thing. He said “They could stop reiief right now and this county conld take care of its own It alwavs did before. Why not now?” A teacher said “If relief there would be chaos in this city, let a plateglass window stand food.” A Republican said: “It's Government has wasted monev along about 1540 and lead us out out befor>.” I have become convinced there simply are not Jobs for the people on relief, and you can't stop relief till there are jobs. can vou® There could, I feel sure, be some trimming up and tightening and sloughing off of the more capable ones on relief. But as for any drastic material reduction —well, T asked two questions of two people closely connected with relief.
What Can You Deo”?
To one 1 said: “Not now. but nuxt the relief rolls be cut off entirely?” After long thinking, the answer was: “No. Maybe if just the employables were cut off they could get by for the summer. But through the winter, absolutely not. There would be terrible starvation. Yet something like the suminer experiment is worth trying.” To the other I said: “If the relief rolls were cut 50 per cent, or say only 25 per cent, could they manage to scrape by?” The answer was: "I don't I . like to see it tried.” Of the 1100 heads of families on relief in county, just a little more than one-third are to work! So what would you do with the 500 old peuple, the 26 blind, the dependent children, the 53 sick men on direct relief? Right there is nearly twothirds of your relief load in Lincoln County. New braska, Able to work--404 heads of families. ployable—635. What can vou do?
My Diary By Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt
Woods at Hyde Park Show Signs That October's Beauty Has Faded.
H DE PARK. Sunday.—-Someone told me yvester- . 1 day that I was advertising the month of October 1 think perhaps he is right! It certainly is a gorgeous month, but the wind started to blow vesterdal and this practically is the montl. of November. The leaves are ponie anc only the green svergreens lighten the brown and gray look of the woods. Have you ever noticed how delicious the water in a stream will look when the wind blows across it and starts myriads of little waves dancing? Our brook. it seems to me, has a cleaner look just now than at any other season of the vear, We have a little girl staving with us "nd she took me straight back to my vouth this morning. for, on coming out of the house, she saw a pile of leaves on the lawn and made one dash and jumped into it. She had never been on a horse, so, after my ride, we put her on Dot and led her around. There is no doubt about it, one should do all the outdoor things when one is voung. She showed no signs of fear, sat up as straight as possible with her feet in the small stirrups which had been attached to my saddle, held the reins in her hand, went off down the drive and called to the police dog to follow, with perfect self-confidence.
Cites Value of School Papers
Since mentioning one school! paper the other day, it has been brought to my attention that I left out a number of others which cover the same field— The American Observer, The Junior Review and The Weekly News Review, besides 28 number of others of equally high standing. In praising one, I meant, of course. to incldue all of those that work along the same lines to increase the interest, the general knowl edge and the high ideals of the students in our schools. Many private and bdublic school publish their own magazines and this practice has an additional value in that the voung penple lear the mechanical end of getting out a magazine or paper. I think these napers. which the young people get out themselves, are of more value perhaps than those which corn.e to thei. and represent no effort of their own. Things which really interest voung people ana encourage the habit of reading, so that they keep up not onlv with current events of their awn environment but the current events of the world at large, are good training for general living in a democracy.
New Books Today
Public Library Presents—
ELEN STMPSON, Margaret Cole, Dorothy Savers, Johr. Rhode, E. R. Funshon. Francis Iles and Freeman Wills Crofts. What, my dear boys and girls, are the foregoing noted for? Quite correct, they are all top-flight mystery and detective storv writers. And now, in ANATOMY OF MURDER (Macmillan) each has chosen an actual, a reai lie murder and delivered thereon a most satisfactory exposition. Some of the crimes are famous, some are unknown. The expositors have not, in the language of the foreword, "been content simply to retell the story of the crime but have endeavored to throw light upon it, either by revelation of new facts, or by application of psychological tests to the mind of the criminal, or bv comparison of the resources of present way investigation with those of the past.” Mr. Will Cuppy says, “The volume, of course, is a necessity in every home where there is a fancier of celebrated crimes.”
\ ™a 0, La \ §.
{
£
Mr. Pyle
were cut down now Starving men won't boiween them and
criminal the way the Some one will come We've alwavs got
spring, could
know. They might. this able
Not em-
»
THEN Jacques Cyr, capable of fame as a great W surgeo , in any large city. chooses to settle in a small Maine lumber-mill town, Nurse Alice Murray is thoroughly disgusted. But when Webster, owner of the big mill, is struck down by carbon monoxide, introduced into his office, the clever doctor, who has also worked in the Secret Service, the pretty nurse, the quick-tempered foreman, and the town constable unite to trap THE KRISTIANA KILLERS (Dutton). With a kidnaping, shots in the dark. a mad dopefiend and his accomplices, hand-to-hand tussles with a great masked creature, and more than one baflling murder, Donald Q. B-rleigh holds your rapt attention to the last thrilling page. If you fancy yourself an amateur detective, here is your chance to solve a mystery, for all the clues are presented, though the obvious solution is skilfully concealed until the crucial moment.
(Other Books, Page 11)
A
® ”
who |
Side Gian
The Indianapolis
‘Central C
SERS hah es fp Ts i ok i
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1937
Imes
Entered at Postoffice,
ity’ Reflects Nation's Life
vi
Ambitious Young Folk Go Away to College, Few Return to Home Town
(In this article, the sixth of seven, Mr. Stokes continues his laboratory analysis of a ‘typical small town.” the identity of which he disguises under the fctitious name “Contral City.)
By Thomas L. Stokes
Times Speciai Writer (CENTRAL CITY, UU. 8. A., Nov. 1.-— Young people with “git up and go” are streaming away from the small town again. This is a contributing factor to the conservatism which still dominates the small town, a conservatism that is an important factor in the American scene, for the small town and the small-town psychology still have their influence political, social and nomic trends. Some of “Central girls marry and stav behind, but 8 majority of the voung men who graduate from high school leave the small-town fireside for other fields. Left behind are voungsters fired with no particular ams bition, including those who do not 80 to high school or do not finish, and who are satisfied to fit them
Tove into the mold of small-town ife
on eCco-
City's”
» ” »
N exception to the exodus, too, . are the sons or established families, powerful in the town. who come back from college to take up the mantles of their fathers in various business enterprises. They become stewards, with the conservative stamp of the steward. The small town is frozen into strata that seem to persist generation after generation without great change, a feudal setup which is perhaps the controlling factor in the conservatism. In this town there are a handful of “ruling families.” In the case of three of them, the family name goes right back to the start of the town in 1871. A member of one of these families was the first Mavor and was re-elected, at intervals, over a long period. One family owns the bank and shares with another the ownership of one of the local canneries. The three families have large real estate holdings. Theirs is a sort of landed aristocracy. With ownership of the canneries—the two others are in the hands of another “ruling family’—goes also the ownership of large tracts of sweetcorn land which are Jéased to tenant farmers,
» » »
fe SR ou CaeLY the power of the ruling families still strong, though politically they are much in the background. The commercial class has come to the front in a political wav. Who runs the town? “Well, if you'd asked me that question two or three years ago, I would have said the canneries,” replied one observer, “But howe well, T wouldn't exactly know.” His doubt seemed to arise from a recent election in Which a candidate for Mayor reportedly backed bv the canneries, which want a new city sewage system to carry away their refuse, was defeated by an elderly citizen, a retired factory superintendent. The winner was a popular local figure, and the personal element entered. He is one of the two Democrats in the City Administration. Party lines don’t seem to count much here in local elections. Some persons, commenting on the changing times, thought the older generation of leading families were better politicians and more public-spirited than the sons of today. “They used to go to the homes of their workers for dinner ana eat with the families,” one man remarked. “Believe me, they could swing the vote of their factories to a man. And when the City needed something, why they shelled out for it.”
1S
n » »
Ao from the leading families, there is the usual commercial circle and the profes-
Great universities of the Middle West, such as the one illustrated above, attract ambitious to the town's disadvantage, many never return, because they find greater opportunities in the “big cities.”
sional group of lawyers and doctors. These three classes provide the 200 members of the country club four miles from town.
Lowest in the economic and social scale are the “North Siders,” the workers in the low income groups. On the North Side the relief problem is still largely concentrated and here the town has its closest approach to a slum area-~though it is not comparable to the slums as the city dweller knows them The town also East and West,
East of the north-and-south railroad track is the elite residential section, the aspiration of the rising young couple of “Central City.” The West side is less desirable. The East Side has the fine old trees and atmosphere of quiet grandeur. The West Side lacks the fine trees and its houses are less pretentious,
The socially-elect entertain each other at many parties, and the voung folk do a good deal of gallivanting to nearby towns and cities, The North Siders dance once a week in the Moose Hall,
is divided into
” » » HERE is drinking among the voung folk. though this was once known as “the original dry town in the United States.” At the same time, lots of voung peo-
ple still go to Sunday School and church. There are 10 Protestant churches and one Catholic Church. Walking through the streets
“Central City” has its country club with golf course, much like the However, these recreational facilities are available only to the
one goes nto of song
Sunday morning, and out of after another. “Central City" of clubs of all sorts, including two literary clubs, one of which cludes all the schoolteachers; Woman's Club embraces home and art, literature and history in its sphere, a newly organized Young People's Organization
which meets once a week to discuss literature, drama, dancing, music and art; a Commercial Club for men. There are also
one chorus
has its quota m=
which
age »
chapters of the Eastern Star and a woman's auxiliary to the Amers= Legion and, for the men, Moose and Odd Fellows. There is also a Tuesday Afternoon Club for ladies who meet to drink tea. Education is one of the bright spots in this town, even though it seems to light the path of the voungsters away from home to more attractive centers. High
School attendance has increased about 50 per cent in the last 10 years, despite the town's negligible growth in population.
can
Geo rg a, Be | ev Ing Und stribu ted-Profits Tax Hurts Business, Asks Its Repeal
|
By Marshall McNeil Times Special Writer ASHINGTON, Nov. 1A belief is widespread in the South that the undistributed-profits tax is particularly detrimental to
1936 imposes upon all undistrib-
uted profits of corporations a tax
| |
which virtually forces the distribu-! tion of said profits. . .. “Such distribution often. weakens |
that section, and as a result the [the financial structure of these cor- |
Georgia Legislature is on demanding its repeal.
record | porations and makes it impossible
|
for them to expand plants and re |
Some Southern businessmen be- | place obsolete machinery, , ,
lieve the tax helps throttle young
| 1s depending for future growth.
The Genrgia resolution was sent to Senator Treorge (D. Sa.), one of he original oppohents of the act, and he has promised to lead the fight to modify the law,
n ” nN HE resolution asserts:
“The U. 8S. Revenue Act of ''mit corporations in this olass to re- sther.”
ces—By Clark
en
id Ce rind - ——~
Tw
35% PL
—— rd
"I'll be glad when everybody ge's used to my new electric razor.” x a
. ha
vl
i h
| industries, upon which their section | with necessity of plant
“Small, growing businesses, faced | expansion | and debt retirement, must pay al prohibitive cost under this tax to maintain and improve their post- | tion.
” » ”
HERE should be Vision
Some promade which will per.
'A WOMAN'S VIEW By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
VERY now and then a group | ~ of mothers with high school | children agitates public opinion by complaints about the salacious | magazines carried on newsstands. A few of us go down, look over |
[the supply of trash, hold indigna- | | tion meetings, write the Mayor and |
the City Council, whole thing is dropved. Perhaps! the pernicious literature also is hidden for a while but soon out it pops again and the same thing fis repeated. I thought about heard a prominent
and soon the
this when 1 preacher sav
| that parents should protest about |
| voices against them are lout of countenance by the sleasy- |
the overemphasis on drinking in many motion pictures. “When extended drinking scenes are shown,” he said, “they are a bad influence | upon impressionable young people.” | And so they are. Everybody | knows that, just as everybody knows that vile pornographic literature is a menace to growing boys and girls, and should not be allowed on newsstands.
Why then are these perils allowed |
| to exist? Because they are a part |
of business, which is more sacred than the welfare of any child. The | women who venture to raise their | laughed
moral moderns who contend that | censorship of any kind is an inva- |
| sion of the rights of representative |
|
|
Americans, It's all very well to resist dic- | tatorship by fanatical reformers, | but it’s another matter to stand | by and watch while the souls of | children are seared by writings and pictures that no decent adult would gave in his home, |
. oy
tire indebtedness existing prior to |
passage of the act out of their curs |
rent earnings without having to pay a tax for the exercising of sound business judgment. . . . “Officials of several of the cor-
porations affected by this provision |
have given assurances that their
corporations will expand their en- |
terprises in the State, by extensive
building programs, if permitted to | do so by relief from this prohibi- |
tive tax...
“The Southeast is logically
these provisions of the Revenue
the | | place for the most rapid industrial | | expansion in the near future, and
|
Act of 1936 are more harmful to this |
section of the country
than any |
ann,
“Central City” vouth. But
a, od &
©
one shown above. “well-to-do.”
third of the high
graduates
BOUT a
school now cons tinue their education, some at the normal training
high
state university, some at
schools and schools. Only rarely does a school graduate go East to college Sons and daughters of the ruling families who do go to Eastern colleges are prepared private schools. Vocational courses are provided by the high schools here, includs= ing agricultural studies, manual training and mechanical drawing for the boys, and sewing and cooking for the girls. This year there is also a cooking course for boys, with 21 in the ciass Many of the students have jobs in their out-of-school hours to help pay their way. The Federal Government also reaches its helping hand into the school. Sixteen students get $6 a month each from the National Youth Administration for doing odd jobs about the school, such as keeping the tennis courts in condition, caring for athletic equipment, working in the school office. High school students are much more interested in what is going on in the world than formerly. Their thinking, however, seems to be confused, and while they argue much, they arrive at nothing very conclusive—except on one subject, That is war. They don't want any of ‘it.
nurses’
at
NEXT<"No poetry desired.”
[Jasper—~Dy Frank
viddtddddScianand
"He says if she don't drop a few subjects he won't carry her books
to schip! any more.’
§
3
s Becond-Class Matter Indianapolis.
Second Section
PAGE 9
ina
Liberal View
By Dr. Harry Elmer Barnes
(Substituting for Anton Scherrer)
Current Explanations of Recent Stock Market Break Are Studied and None Appears to Be Adequate.
EW YORK, Nov. 1.—It would be naive to assert that the recent break in the stock market has been due solely to a direct and deliberate effort of some economic roy= alists in finance and big business to gang
up on President Roosevelt and destroy the
economic benefits of the New Deal. The thesis of a deliberate conspiracy to blow up the market is too simple and hardly could be sustained. On the other hand, the broad theory that the recent decline in business, so far as it has been a real decline, and the sharp break in security values are a product chiefly of the antagonism of some economic royalists to the Roosevelt Administration seems to me to be the nanly none which fits a majority of the facts in the situation 1 have examined most ol current explanations of the ket behavior and none ol seems to me at all adequate Tt is held that the SEC regulations are too stringent. Judge Pecora seems to me to have answered this charge adequately Al any rate regulations were in operation when been at its top in the last year If business is getting worse, and here exaggerae fion has existed. certainly it has not declined at all in proportion to market drops. Further, the Administra« tion eannot be blamed for business decline. Most of the business prosperity which has existed since 1933 has been directly attributable to the economic and financial activities of the Administration, which has primed the pump of industry and spent lavishly to increase mass purchasing power. With gigantic armament ordars, the thriving aue tomobile industry and prospective housing develops ments there seems little basis for any anticipation of real decline in the heavy industries
War Theory Discounted
The war threat explanation seems more shallow than any other, War is horrible in a human sense, but it would mean temporarily far greater orders for industry. Moreover, the war threat has been as great during market spurts. It has been held by some that speculators broke the market for selfish personal reasons. But many speculators have been losers. John T. Flynn has pointed out that security prices were too high at the top of the market this year. This is true, but it does not account for the market breaks. It might if security prices hore any close relation to sound economic principles. But stock prices rise out of proportion to rationality, so one can hardly hold that rationality is responsible for declines If rationality prevailed there would be neither skyrockating nor sharp breaks. And the res cent breaks have carried stocks to lows which defy rationality Others have laid the break to the talk of the Ads ministration about balancing the budget and the action in curtailing expenditures for public works and relief. If this has played any part some economie rovalists who have been violently insistent upon just {these policies are to hlame,
“~
{he marthem
Dr. Barnes
the same SEQ the market has
SR —
Jane Jordan—
Adolescent Education
Prepare Youth for
JANE JORDAN--1 have a problem similar that of many other 16-year-old high school girls. I have many lovely girl friends, but cannot at= tract the boys. 1 am easy to get along with, love sports, dancing and other clean. wholesome fun. 1 go to a number of parties and meet many boys, but after the party 1 do not see them on dates I've been told that it surely must not be my looks that keep me from enjoying good times like other young folk. Also it is not the lack of knowing something to talk about because I read the sports page and keep up on all the new books for young people. I have had some dates on which the boys try to be mushy and that is one thing I just can’t stand. Oh. I don't mind a kiss or two, but being mushy is just the same as starting on the road to being cheap. Am I right? ELLEN.
Does N=#
Adult Life,
EAR to
» ” ”
Answer=-The reason I receive so many letters like yours fs that this question is of such burning impor tance to girls of your age and there is nothing in their education to help them with their adjustments fo the other sex. Adults have taught them that they must protect themselves against the fumbling advances of awkward boys, without their being candid as to the reason. The result is a feeling of vague fear and horror that prevents a girl from being natural in adolescent courtship. There is nothing the matter with you except that you haven't associated with enough boys in your childhood to become accustomed to their natures. You expect them to act with the finesse of experienced men, and boys =imply aren't like that. . I don't think vou're entirely honest with vourself when vou say vou just can't stand mushiness. If yon will examine your own day dreams vou will find that they are not so free from mush. In our day dreams wa find unobserved release for impulses forbidden to res ality and can alter the facts go that the conscience in satisfied. The boy of our dreams is tender and pros tective and intends to marry us in the dim distant fus ture so that everything is miraculously “all right" Isn't this true? Now. when you are confronted in fact with a hoy intent on making love vou are filled with fear-fear of what he will think of vou, of what others will think of vou, of what vou will think of yourself, Everything is not miraculously “all right” but “all wrong.” Your best defense against the temptation to which vou vield only in dreams is to feel disgust and distaste. The vensitive bov, already in doubt as to his skill as a lady=-killer, feels your stand-offish attitude and moves on to easier conquests I am not sugResting that vou succumb to mush, You are right You can't without incurring ths disapproval of vour set and perhaps of the hoys thems selves, 1 am suggesting that you revise your attituds toward it. A mushy boy is as natural and normal as a friendly pup who leaps all over vou without first ass certaining if his pawing is welcome. Your job as a girl 1s to attain an unabashed, unafraid and undise gusted attitude. Treat him as you would the pup, with an affectionate and appreciative pat on the head, coupled with the firm demand that he curb his exuberance, JANE JORDAN.
Put your problems in a letter to Jane Jordan, who will answer vour questions in this column daily,
Walter O'Keefe —
PPARENTLY the Japanese want to play game their own way out in the Far Bast they have a lively contempt for kibitzers. The sons of Nippon are making up rules as they go along and it would seem that those innocent bye standers would be far better off if they were actually in the battle. Every time the Japanese take aim they manage to hit No. 10 Downing St. If Tokyo keeps on refusing to heed American opinion the chances are that people ‘will retaliate by picketing the cherry trees in Washington, The real reason Japan needs more space is not her crowded population. They need several thousand ~quare miles just to house the filing cabinets that contain all those notes of apology. "
the and